St. Cloud MN Real Estate Video Blog with Chris Hauck

How Can an Agent Help You Have a Successful Transaction?

There are many great St. Cloud area homes for sale. Click here to perform a full home search, or if you're thinking of selling your home, click here for a FREE Home Price Evaluation so you know what buyers will pay for your home in today's market. You may also call me at (320) 240-3363 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation to answer any of your real estate questions.

Recently, a friend here in St. Cloud gave me a call and asked me question that I'm sure many other people have. He said, if he wanted to, he could just put his home on Craigslist where everybody can see it, rather than hiring an agent to do it for him. He said: "What exactly is it you do?" I'm glad he asked.

Buyers who are looking to buy For Sale By Owner (FSBO) are expecting a fantastic deal. They know exactly what the commission is and the money you're saving by selling the home yourself; they want that money in their pocket and then some! If they have a buyer's agent with them, that agent has a fiduciary responsibility to the buyer to ensure their best interests are being represented. In essence, the buyer has someone on their side working to get the best terms and price possible - while you're on your own.

If the buyer is working with an attorney, they can obviously only represent one party in the transaction. Attorneys who work for FSBOs tend to be more aggressive and don't always write a favorable contract with the seller.

As the process advances, a home inspection will occur. Inspectors also feel it is their responsibility to protect the buyer. They will find something wrong with any home, regardless of how new it is, and buyers will use the inspection report to their advantage. It is hard to come up with the appropriate response to some of the inspector's objections and, in many cases, can cost the seller thousands of dollars.

If you are working with a bank, the appraiser may not have the appropriate comparable sales to properly price your home. It is common for appraisers to come in from outside the area, which means they might not have the info they need to justify the price you feel you should get. It's an agent's job to make sure the relevant comparable sales are available to the appraiser, so the price comes in where you expect it to.

Sometimes, the lender has additional requirements that benefit the buyer. Lenders often feel they are an advocate for the buyer and will overstep their boundaries to try to protect them. This can often lead to a renegotiation, which slows the process down and hurts your chances of getting the price you want.

An agent provides protection against all the entities that could potentially work against you! We have tons of experience with buyer's agents, contractors, lenders, inspectors, and all the parties in between. We can make the transaction work in your favor by protecting your interests against those of the buyer. People who try For Sale By Owner often have multiple deals fall through - we make sure that doesn't happen.

In short: an agent saves you time, money, and a whole lot of stress. If you have any questions about the many things we can do for you, don't hesitate to give us a call or shoot us an email. We would love to hear from you!

The Winds of Change Are Blowing in St. Cloud

We have some good news for you today. The economy is improving and we are seeing the transfer market pick up. For the last few years, people have been reluctant to take a new job or leave their old one - but that's changing.

A lot of people are making moves they've been waiting to make for the past 3-5 years. This is good news for those of you thinking about selling your home, especially if you're in the upper-end market, because the upper management system is changing in our community. As always, if you have further questions about current market conditions, or are interested in buying or selling a home, please give us a call. We would love to assist you in any way.

Interest Rates May Be on the Rise as Fed Announces Change

Many people have been asking us lately, What's the deal with interest rates? Where are they heading and what will the impact be?

Over the last few years the Federal Government has been buying mortgage-backed bonds at a very aggressive rate. This has had the effect of keeping interest rates near record-lows, at about 4.25% for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage. However, the Fed has slowly been reducing the amount of mortgage-backed bonds they are buying. The have announced that they plan to stop buying them altogether, and that could happen as early as October. The end result would be that the artificially low interest rates we have been seeing may not stay there. Many anticipate rates to jump as high as 5.5% as early as this coming spring.

The higher rates are still attractive to buyers, historically speaking, as interest rates have been around 8% on average for the last 30 years. But if you do the math, the small percentage or so jump in rates could have a huge affect on your spending power. For example, if you borrow $200,000 at 4.25%, your monthly payment will be about $983 a month; a rate of 5.5% would make your monthly payment about $1,135 a month. If you plan on living in your home for 10 years, you could save as much as $18,000 by locking in current interest rates.

If you have the option of moving today, we highly recommend it. We don't know how long it will be before we see rates fall this low again, so now is the time to lock in low rates for future savings. If you have any further questions about changing interest rates, please feel free to give me a call. I would love to discuss your real estate options with you.